It is all in the mindset: Two cases to study.

Case One:A horrific attack (Bradys beware: It did not involve a gun so in your book, it did not happen) of a shop owner by some nutjob armed with what appears to be some sort of hammer. The criminal appears to be a customer and actually goes to the counter holding two gallon jugs of milk. As the shop owner is bagging the items, the nutjob sprays him with a liquid, pulls out the hammer, goes around the counter and attacks the shop owner with six (6) blows to the head.

Here is a sequence:Notice that the shop owner’s hands are busy giving the criminal free access to spray his face with the liquid.

Shop owner tries to clean the liquid off his face as the nutjob walks around the counter while retrieving the hammer.

Apparently the liquid did not have too much effect as the shop owner can now see the nutjob coming around and about to get behind the counter.

Decision Time: The shop owner is in a clearly defensive stance. He is trapped now by an advancing criminal and what he does in the next half a second is decisive

So what was worth so much that the attacker went on such a malevolent rampage? The week’s shop earnings? Maybe some hidden precious metals? Nope: two cartons of Marlboro Reds was the take. He never even attempted to go into the register.
The shop owner, Yue Kui Cen is at Jackson Memorial Hospital in extreme critical condition. Last I heard he had not regained consciousness.

Case Two.Armed purse snatcher attacks a woman in her 60s. She, her 81 year old mother and a friend were in their vehicle in their home’s driveway when a man armed with a gun pulls her out of a car and pistol whips her so he can get the purse. Moms are Moms and the 81 year old lady jumps out of the SUV, grabs the malefactor by the shirt and belts him repeatedly with her purse. The criminal, surprised by the old & spunky lady, release the daughter, misses a shot at Super Granny and escapes with the tail between his legs.

For this exercise, let’s not concentrate of either tactics or the wisdom of physically confronting a much younger armed male. It goes without saying that the spry Old Lady was very lucky, but I’ll take luck alongside anything else if it helps me survive. Our analysis here is the fact that Super Granny had the proper mindset, acted upon it and on doing so, it alter the mindset of the opponent. The criminal came to this situation with a simple equation:

Female Victim + Violence = Easy Score.

But a new unexpected factor was added to the equation: the application of violence to his person in the form of a purse wielded by a small old woman. There were no per-programmed responses to this factor and as the coward that he is, chose to run away. A decisive & aggressive mindset won the day.

Both cases were defined by the Mindset, not the Tools or the Training. One chose to surrender and let the attacker decided his faith while the other chose to fight to defend his daughter. We know that the old “Let them have what they want and you will not be harmed” mantra told by the Anti Gun Movement and the political hacks wearing Policed Chief uniforms simply does not work. Violence works. Doing whatever is necessary to win works. Self-Defense is not a Sport with rules to be followed or has referees to call time out and assign penalties. It is brutal, nasty and with the great possibility that you might be living the last seconds of your life. Don’t screw around following dictum by people that are protected by bodyguards and live in secure luxury housing.

All gun owners (and even if you are not a gun owner) must read Principles of Personal Defense by Jeff Cooper. What Musashi is for the martial artist/fighter and von Clausewitz is for the soldier, Cooper is for the civilian who does not wish to forfeit their safety in the hands of the government. If you are a gentle soul, be ready to be shocked and even insulted, Col. Copper was not a very PC man, but neither is violent death at the hands of a criminal.

“One bleeding-heart type asked me in a recent interview if I did not agree that ‘violence begets violence.’ I told him that it is my earnest endeavor to see that it does. I would like very much to ensure—and in some cases I have—that any man who offers violence to his fellow citizen begets a whole lot more in return than he can enjoy.”

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16 Replies to “It is all in the mindset: Two cases to study.”

Col. Jeff Cooper has a lasting, personal , influence on me. Gunsite is a GREAT place. He had more good old common horse sense than many of the Tacti-Kewl Keyboard Commando Mall Ninjas of today ever will. That little book ( Principles of Personal Defense) has been read by me at least 15 times. Great book!

You do a great job!! Your attitude and opinions are spot on. Keep up the good work.

One of the biggest influences on my mindset, and decision to carry a gun, happened in the late 90’s. A high school friend of mine was working at a bank when a criminal came in and ordered her and a coworker into a back room. The crook then shot both in the head and left. My friend survived, but was paralized. Her coworker died.

Another good read is Bill Jordan’s “No Second Place Winners”. These old guys knew the score and weren’t afraid to tell it like it was, PC be damned. Col. Cooper has always been on my list of must read authors.

Sorry, I just messed up my last comment (missed Home Row by a couple of keys), and somehow accidentally replied. Let me start over:

I know I’m responding to a troll, but I can’t help but respond to this one, with a simple thought: Because nothing is more violent than shooting someone who is going to try to bash your brains in with a hammer, just for a couple of packs of cigarettes!

Now…let see..One I’m saddened by the condition that the store owner is in. Sending him and his family prayers, good thoughts, good vibes etc on swift wings.
2. I HATE those people that fit into what my favorite author called the “hanky stomping, take a punk to lunch bunch” category Most liberals fall into this category. Including those head in the sand, camel humping, do as I say not as I do, because I know better than you, cowardly fucktards over among the Brady bunch.
3. I’m of the mind that the only good punk is a dead one. Alas this outlook does NOT make me popular with my friends who work with underprivileged kids trying to either keep them from, or get them out of “the life” . *shrug* can’t be helped. As Popeye says..”I am what I am” and I believe what I believe.

I completely agree! It drives me nuts to see comments, after a thug gets shot and/or killed, that say “Yeah! One less lowlife to worry about!” I would much rather see those thugs renounce their punk lifestyle…or, if schizophrenic, to obtain successful treatment if possible, or kept comfortable and safe out of society if not.

And if these punks live to see another day, and don’t change their lifestyle, I mourn the wasted potential of their own lives, and the harm they cause others as they destroy others’ lives.

Every life is precious. If only they would change their ways! But if I had to choose between preserving my own life, and the life of the innocent, over some vague “potential” of someone who is threatening innocent life, I will not hesitate to shoot first, and mourn later.

It is my perception that robbery is motivated by a desire to inflict violence on a helpless victim as much or more than the desire to obtain goods without paying. After all, rapists don’t rape because they don’t have the money for a call girl.

To re-iterate the “violence begets violence” thought that Jeff Cooper gave: It has been said that “Those who live by the sword will die by the sword”. Hoplophobes take that to mean that anyone who carries a gun is going to die by one. It is one thing to carry a gun for self-defense, if the need arises; it’s quite another, however, to use that gun to terrorize others, and murder, to make a living.

It is my duty to see that, when someone who lives by the sword calls on me to provide them a living, to do what I can to ensure that they will be stopped by the sword–and if it means they die as a result, then so be it. They chose that fate, not me, when they chose to threaten innocent life for their benefit.